Legacy Rangers (Book Two of the Chosen Universe)

Chapter Eighteen

OLLIE

He'd been having the strangest dreams lately. They started around the time Kat died, and he initially blamed it on eating junk food before bed, but they hadn't gone away when he stopped.

He found himself in complete darkness, looking at a planet of terrifying monsters. They stood around playing cards, trading stories of their tragic defeat and explaining how they planned to get their revenge.

The monster who always grabbed his attention was especially frightening. The other monsters seemed to fear him, and although none of them seemed to notice Ollie, he felt like this one sensed him somehow. He slipped further into the shadows, hoping they would hide him from sight.

Ollie awoke with a start. He sighed and curled back up, determined to get some actual rest. It wasn't long before the shadows swallowed him up again, but this time, he wasn't in the same place.

It was dark. A voice he recognized began to sing through her obvious tears. Tamira, he realized. Tamira's in danger.

As she continued to sing, the room grew lighter. A monster Ollie recognized from old news footage of the Power Rangers sat with her. Lord Zedd seemed oddly calm for an evil guy. He listened to Tamira sing.

"You too?" A woman asked in disgust. "Honestly! Come here, you worthless brat!" She grabbed Tamira by her hair and dragged her away from Lord Zedd.

"Unhand that girl at once, Merkhet!" He shouted. Now he resembled the terrifying monster he was supposed to be.

"I am taking her away before she taints you. She is a curse on our mission."

Lord Zedd grabbed Merkhet's arm and nearly crushed it as Tamira watched in terror. "You gave her to me, Woman! You cannot take her back."

"You didn't even want her!"

The two battled for a minute before he used his staff to zap her. She cursed and tried to retaliate, but Tamira began singing to try to calm the situation. Lord Zedd hesitated before releasing Merkhet from the death grip he had on her. "Go." He said harshly.

"The girl comes with me," Merkhet said. Before he could protest, she grabbed her and vanished. Ollie forced himself to step through the shadows between the realms and follow them.

Merkhet immediately attacked Tamira. Ollie wanted to help, but if this was only a dream, he was pretty sure there was nothing he could do. He felt his anger grow as Tamira screamed in pain while Merkhet tortured her.

Ollie nearly jumped out of his bed. He knew he had to help Tamira. It may have been a dream, but he was certain the threat was real. He tried to text her. She hadn't responded to him in days, and he'd been wondering if he'd pissed her off somehow, but now he knew something was really wrong. He'd tried asking Zack why she didn't respond to him and he'd gotten all weird and tried to brush it off. Something was definitely going on.

"I'll ask Tia to help," he decided aloud. He knew the girl had some sort of power to move through portals. If anyone could help him find Tamira, it was her.

ZEDD

He was furious Merkhet had taken Tamira away. He was even more furious that he could see her hurting the girl. I need to put an end to that wretched woman, he thought. He decided to do something fairly crazy. The child would never be safe with Merkhet. She could snap and kill her at any moment. He wasn't quite sure why, but he could not allow that to happen.

You could not save Raven, he reminded himself. Save his descendant. Although he hadn't had absolute proof that Tamira was Raven's descendant, he had discovered her last name was Taylor, as Raven's had been. That was part of why he'd chosen his son Taylor's name. He was clearly light, and on some level, Zedd had been paying tribute to his former friend. The last name was enough for him. He did not want to help anyone. He was evil. He didn't care about the girl... But she had given him peace, however briefly, and he owed it to her to try to protect her now.